Vermont: IRV in Burlington worked

FairVote reports on its website: On Tuesday March 7, Burlington, VT became the first city in the U.S. in over 30 years to elect its mayor using instant runoff voting. After the first round of counting, no candidate garnered the required majority to win outright. Progressive candidate Bob Kiss received 39% of first-choice votes, Democrat Hinda Miller 31%, and Republican Kevin Curley 26%. At this point an instant runoff kicked in. Curley and two other independent candidates were eliminated and their second choices counted. This gave Kiss enough votes to cross the majority threshold and win the race.

Voters found the system easy to use and understand, and almost no trouble with the balloting was reported. The Progressive Party has been active in Vermont politics for decades, and Burlington has elected several Progressive mayors in the past under the previous plurality system.